WIRELESS LOCATION USING SIGNAL FINGERPRINTING AND OTHER LOCATION ESTIMATORS

• US 20080167049A1
• Filed: 04/24/2007
• Published: 07/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TracBeam LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Original Assignee: TracBeam LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Inventors: Dupray, Dennis J., Karr, Charles L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,237,543 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/026 of associated receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/028 Simulation means, e.g. of beacon signals therefor for teaching or training purposes G09B9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/006 for emergency situations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/008 using a mobile telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0244 Accuracy or reliability of position solution or of measurements contributing thereto
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0257 Hybrid positioning by coordinating position lines of different shape G01S5/12
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0278 involving statistical or probabilistic considerations G01S5/0252, G01S5/0294 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/06 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A wireless location system is disclosed. Locations of mobile stations (MS) may be determined using one or more MS locating technologies based on, e.g.: computed offsets from terrestrial base stations; satellite transmissions; indoor antennas; low range base stations; and in particular, signal pattern recognition for associating wireless signal characteristics with distinct geographic locations. The system can: adapt and/or calibrate its performance with environmental and geographical changes; capture location signal data for enhancement of a self-maintaining database of predictive location signal data; evaluate MS locations using heuristics and constraints related to terrain, MS velocity and path extrapolation; and adjust MS locations adaptively and/or statistically for providing more reliable and accurate locations. The system can be configured for environments ranging from dense urban, urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. The system is useful for 911 emergencies, tracking, routing (e.g., to desired products/services), people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

Claims

1. A method for estimating, for each mobile station MS of a plurality of mobile stations, a location, L for MS using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile station MS and a plurality of terrestrial communication stations, wherein each of said communications stations has one or more of each of a transmitter and a receiver for Tirelessly communicating with the mobile station MS, comprising:

first receiving a request for locating the mobile station MS;

second receiving, in response to said step of first receiving, one or more location hypotheses of the mobile station MS, wherein each location hypothesis includes a representation of a location estimate of the mobile station MS, and wherein said one or more location hypotheses are determined using one or more MS location related outputs from one or more of location information determiners, wherein (A1) (A2) following hold;

(A1) for determining a corresponding portion of the location related outputs for the mobile station MS, each of said one or more location information determiners is dependent upon (I) and (II) following;

(I) at least some of a plurality of data instances, wherein, for each of a plurality geographical locations, there is one of the data instances having, (i) and (ii) following;

(i) a representation of the geographical location, and

(ii) multipath information of wireless signal data obtained using transmissions between one of the mobile stations and the communication stations, wherein the one mobile station transmits from approximately the geographical location of (i); and

(II) multipath data indicative of wireless signal multipath transmissions between the MS and the communication stations;

(A2) for each representation of a location estimate from said location information determiners, there is a corresponding collection of wireless receivers of the communication stations from which multipath data indicative of wireless signal multipath transmissions between MS and the corresponding collection of receivers are used by the location information determiner for determining its location related outputs, wherein for at least a first and a second representation of location estimates, their corresponding collections are different;

transmitting, to a predetermined destination, via a communications network, resulting information related to the location of the mobile station MS, wherein said resulting information is obtained from said one or more MS location estimates of said location hypotheses.

2. The method of claim 1 further including one or more of:

(a) modifying a confidence for at least one of the MS location estimates depending upon a consistency with previous location estimates along a known route; and

(b) comparing data of the at least one MS location estimate with second data of one of the location estimates obtained from a location information determiner different from a location information determiner from which the at least one MS location information is received, wherein the data of the at least one MS location estimate, and the second data are each one of;

a velocity and an acceleration; and

modifying a confidence of the at least one MS location estimate depending upon a consistency between the data of the at least one MS location estimate and the second data.